Plaça d’Espanya maintains the encampment for the right to housing: “We are not doing a passive wait, we are organizing ourselves”

Palma"You are doing very well, don't give up. If I were younger, I would come too." An eighty-year-old lady approached a group of young people this Tuesday at noon who are maintaining the encampment for the right to housing in Palma's Plaza de España and wanted to convey her support. The scene, explains Albert, one of the spokespersons for the encampment, is not exceptional. Throughout the last few hours, people of all ages have approached the tents to encourage them and, in many cases, to bring them food or other products they might need.

"So far we haven't had to buy anything," explains the spokesperson. Solidarity has caused the tent set up as a pantry to gradually fill with food and other products contributed by people who wanted to join the protest in this way. "Many people have come since we've been here and asked if we need anything," he relates.

Likewise, people have also come throughout the morning to convey their dissatisfaction with the housing issue and the obstacles they have encountered in trying to access it. "During this morning, some people have come to see us to explain to us that they are scheduled to be evicted and what they could do, one of them with an imminent eviction," he said. "What we have done so far is collect their data and pass it on to the Union or the PAH to see how they can be helped," he comments.

The encampment began in the early hours of Monday to Tuesday, after the massive rally in the Plaza de Cort called by the Mallorca Tenants' Union under the slogan 'Not one more Maricarmen! Until we conquer the right to housing'. When the mobilization ended, a group of people moved to the Plaza de España and decided to set up tents there to spend the night and give continuity to the protest.

About thirty people stayed to sleep there during the first night and by this Tuesday at noon there were still about ten people at the encampment. The participants are now organizing in rotating shifts to ensure that the space is maintained and that the action continues throughout the hours. The initiative is inspired by the encampments that have been launched these days in other parts of the State, especially in Madrid, where the protest started after the eviction of Maricarmen – an 87-year-old woman who had lived for more than seven decades in the same home – has turned the Puerta del Sol into the main focus of the mobilization for the right to housing. The Madrid encampment has grown to gather hundreds of people and has been organized through assemblies and different commissions.

Also in Catalonia the movement has raised the possibility of moving the protest to the street with an encampment. The Tenants' Union of Catalonia has not ruled out installing itself in the Plaça de Catalunya in Barcelona and has defended that the case of Maricarmen is not an isolated event, but rather represents a problem that affects many other people.

A protest that aims to remain organized

In Palma, the participants have begun to structure the encampment with different organization groups to distribute tasks and ensure its operation. The objective, as they explain, is to maintain a protest action that they define as peaceful resistance. Not everything they have received, however, has been support. Another member of the organization explains to ARA Balears that, although most of the reactions are positive, they have also had to face insults, looks of disapproval, and people who have recorded them with photographs and videos.

Solidarity, on the other hand, has also translated into material aid that has allowed the first hours of the encampment to be sustained. The improvised pantry is one of the most visible signs of this citizen response. With a view to this Tuesday afternoon, the campers have called an open assembly at 6:30 PM, in which it is planned to specify the next steps of the protest after knowing the content of the new housing decree that the Spanish government is promoting.

"We are not waiting passively"

Another spokesperson for the Mallorca Tenants' Union, Mariona, calls for caution regarding the content of the regulation being prepared by the state executive. "We do not want to rush, we do not want to get ahead of ourselves regarding these royal decrees that are being presented," she points out.

The union believes that there are measures that could align with its demands, but warns that it is still waiting to verify which of the proposals it considers fundamental will finally be incorporated into the text. Among its demands are greater stability for rental contracts, protection measures against evictions, and regulation of temporary rentals and room rentals.

This Tuesday, precisely, the Spanish government reached an agreement between the PSOE and Sumar to move forward with the package of housing measures after last-minute negotiations. Among the proposed measures are the regulation of room and temporary rentals and protection measures for vulnerable households, while the automatic renewal of contracts has been placed in a second regulatory package.

For the Tenants' Union, however, waiting for the final content does not mean stopping the mobilization. "We are not waiting passively, we are waiting while organizing ourselves," argues Mariona. "We know that these mobilizations have been massive, we have advanced a great deal, we are exerting brutal pressure, and that is why we must continue in the streets." The spokesperson maintains that the mobilization will continue until the right to housing has, in her words, protection comparable to other social rights. "We want to be able to have a decent home and be able to live without fear of being kicked out of our homes every X years," she states.

Talks and activities during the weekThe encampment is not limited to overnight stays. Participants have developed a calendar of activities and tasks for the day and plan to include other activities in the coming days, such as talks, training sessions, and debates on housing and anti-repressive struggle, with the intention that they serve to deepen the movement's demands and provide tools to the participants.

The continuation of the encampment will be decided, in large part, based on this Tuesday afternoon's assembly and the Spanish government's response to the set of demands. In Madrid, meanwhile, the Puerta del Sol remains occupied by hundreds of people, and the encampment has consolidated itself as one of the main symbols of the mobilization triggered by the Maricarmen case. In Palma, the first night left a dozen tents installed in the Plaça d'Espanya and a group of people willing to keep them occupied. And, as Albert explains, also a citizen response that goes beyond the usual participants in the mobilizations: "There are people of all ages who come and tell us to continue".